Now all that`s left of that vision is the stripped-down hulk of a half- finished condominium at Costa del Sol of Boca Pointe. And the only place to find the brochure is in the rubble of the sales office.

``I have suffered more from that Costa del Sol project than anything else in my life,`` said Ken Hemmerle, the Fort Lauderdale developer who sank $12 million into the project. Then Sunrise Savings & Loan in Boynton Beach failed, and in 1987 its government insurers foreclosed on Hemmerle.

As the building crumbles and weeds choke Costa del Sol`s 30 acres, neighbors have begun to share Hemmerle`s suffering. They say rats are attracted to the garbage that midnight opportunists dump behind the five-story shell, and some think transients set a fire that destroyed a long-abandoned trailer last month.

``It`s an eyesore. I don`t think they can do anything except dynamite it,`` said Marjorie Planty. The window of her Edgewater Pointe Estates apartment stares out at the site, at Southwest 18th Street just east of Powerline Road west of Boca Raton. She complained to county officials until she gave up in frustration earlier this year. Others carry on the fight, but the county attorney says he cannot do anything until courts settle who owns the building.

Hemmerle said the building has been stripped of all valuables. Vandals have removed each of the hundreds of windows and filched every inch of copper pipe. Much of the barbed-wire topped chain-link fence surrounding the shell has been flattened. But concrete blocks and bags of cement still are neatly stacked on the floors, and some carpet samples brighten an otherwise bare first-floor room.

The trailer that served as a sales office might as well have been hit by a hurricane. Every window and mirror lies in shards on the floor, which also is strewn with blueprints, business cards, newspapers and a soiled red, white and blue welcome flag. A table model of what Costa del Sol should have looked like sits wrecked in the corner.

His troubles started in 1985 when the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. took over insolvent and scandal-ridden Sunrise Savings. The FSLIC grudgingly agreed to continue the loan and allow Hemmerle to keep working on Costa del Sol -- as long as he bought out his partner for $2 million and shared the cost instead with Sun-Island Realty of Fort Lauderdale.

In September 1987, FSLIC reached another agreement with Hemmerle. Instead of foreclosing, it would sell its interest in Costa del Sol to him for $8.2 million if he could arrange financial backing by the end of the year. If he couldn`t, FSLIC would extend the deadline.

But, come Jan. 1, 1988, the agency instead demanded immediate payment of $11 million. Hemmerle couldn`t do it, so he sued in Palm Beach County Circuit Court charging FSLIC with breaking its agreement. Last year, a sympathetic jury agreed, awarding him $25 million and Sun-Island Realty another $1.9 million. And he has a related suit pending in federal court for $150 million.

``I feel like I`m against the whole world,`` said Hemmerle, who still hasn`t collected because the government is appealing the verdict.

The legal tangle has left Costa del Sol abandoned for nearly five years. Guards stayed on the site as late as 1988, but Hemmerle said a court ordered them to leave.

Neighbors finally pestered County Code Enforcement into citing Sun-Island for a long list of violations. Fines of $100 a day began accruing last December, and the county filed a $10,000 lien last spring when it went unpaid.

But Hemmerle says Sun-Island -- in which he is a partner -- can`t clean the place up because it doesn`t own the property. Now it belongs to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which inherited FSLIC`s liabilities after last year`s saving and loan bailout. FDIC hasn`t done anything, but their representatives couldn`t be reached for comment on Friday.

The county`s lien apparently isn`t worth much, anyway. It is doubtful whether Code Enforcement could collect from the federal government. And so many safety hazards plague the site, the county probably wouldn`t want it even if it could seize the land.

What Hemmerle wants is for the government to pay him the $25 million awarded by the Circuit Court jury. He said he`s willing to negotiate, but government attorneys haven`t shown a similar inclination. He would still like to finish Costa del Sol. He said the 358-unit complex was 92 percent sold out when construction stopped.

``If we could solve this thing tomorrow, we would have a construction crew out there and start cleaning things up,`` Hemmerle said.